MEPs clash over deadline for end to post office monopolies

Date: 09/11/00

By Peter Chapman

MEPS are waging a fierce war of words over Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein's plans to open more of the Union's highly-protected postal sector to competition.

The argument, which is set to escalate when the European Parliament's transport committee discusses the issue later this month, follows calls from the assembly's main rapporteur on the issue for a deadline to be set for ending the monopolies held by national post offices.

German Christian Demo-crat Markus Ferber wants a final date for total liberalisation to be inserted into the proposals tabled this summer by Bolkestein. But rival MEPs are pushing for the Commissioner's plans - due to be implemented in 2004 - to be watered down.

Opponents of Ferber, a keen supporter of post liberalisation, want to keep the threshold below which the letters business is 'reserved' for the postal monopolies at 150 grams. Ferber supports Bolkestein's proposal to lower it to 50 grams for standard letters and direct 'junk mail', but says he is willing to compromise and accept less ambitious weight limits for all types of letters in return for a deadline for full liberalisation.

"I am fighting to get a final date. For that I am able to pay a price of more than 50 grams for 2004," he said, suggesting that the deadline could be 2007 - the year by which the Commission has promised to take another step towards liberalisation.

Private-sector operators have criticised Bolkestein's proposal to open up areas representing just 22% of the traditional postal operators' business, arguing that this would do little to boost competition.

But Ferber claims they too would settle for an even smaller reduction in the area reserved for the monopolies if it meant they would be able to look forward to full liberalisation. Setting a final date, he insisted, would make the proposals "stronger than Bolkestein's" and allow firms to invest in the future with greater certainty.

However, UK Socialist MEP Brian Simpson - one of the main opponents of swift market-opening - claimed Ferber was pushing for a deadline because he knew he had lost the debate on weight limits even among many within his own political group in the Parliament.

"He is trying to get something out of it - and a final date is what he is looking for. But there is a problem in that not even EU leaders at the Lisbon summit called for that," said Simpson. "If you set a final date and it comes in, there would be no recourse to the Parliament. We do not know what the situation might be in 2006 or 2007."

Martin Walsh, EU affairs manager for the British

Post Office, claimed full liberalisation would kill traditional postal operators' efforts to offer universal service to all customers, including those living in the remotest areas. "All parties at the moment agree that there needs to be a reserved area. How can we be even considering a final date? You would have no reserved area at all - it is illogical," he said.

MEPs are waging a fierce war of words over Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein's plans to open more of the Union's highly-protected postal sector to competition.